Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: NHL-Teams

The longer Ryan Smyth remains a Colorado Avalanche before Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline, the more plausible a case you can make for a trade to Vancouver. (Smyth has a no-trade clause, but hands up if you think “Captain Canada” would reject a back north).

Facing empty seats and a recession, Avalanche GM Francois Giguere needs to slash payroll, and Smyth is a huge ticket over the next three years: $16.5-million (all currency U.S.) with an annual cap hit of $6.25-million (read more on the Denver Post’s excellent Avs blog.

If Giguere requires pure return value for Smyth the Player, than there is no fit with the Canucks. But if Giguere just has to rid himself of Smyth the Contract, than Vancouver becomes a believable destination. (Smyth was traded from Edmonton exactly two years ago Wednesday. Since that deadline deal, the grass has not been greener.)

Let’s take a quick whirl around before we jump on a plane from Toronto to ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn.

• Things were “moving along” in the Derek Morris trade talks in Phoenix. The veteran defenseman, an unrestricted free agent July 1 with a no-trade clause, gave the Coyotes a list of teams over the weekend—all in the Eastern Conference and described to us as “contenders.” As we suspected in our Saturday blog, Boston is among those teams talking to Phoenix, but they’ve got company.

These are smart men. Most are former players. Most are well educated. And most have years of on-the-job experience.

Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson graduated from law school, while Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ray Shero grew up watching his father win championship after championship as the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers.

But on March 4, as GMs desperately rush to the market for some last minute purchases, most will seem to have forgotten their shopping lists at home as they impulsively add to their carts.

What Lamoriello did was find a way to trade away a large contract to create room under the salary cap, which at the time was in its infancy. His trading partner, the San Jose Sharks, received the premium of a first-round draft pick for agreeing to use their room under the cap to take a multimillion-dollar contract off Lamoriello’s hands, which allowed him to sign a couple of important players.

At the time, some GMs thought this was circumventing the rules of the salary cap. But NHL commissioner Gary Bettman approved the deal and the complaints faded away.

Now, with the trade deadline approaching on Wednesday, some GMs think there may be a number of those deals made, which amount to one team leasing its spare cap room to another for a price. A rebuilding team with room to spare under the salary cap and no plans to spend a lot of money on free agents this summer will offer to take an expensive contract off another team’s hands, which will allow that other team to pursue a player who can help in the playoff drive.

You have just two days left to come up with your excuse to call in sick Wednesday. Here’s a tip: develop the early symptoms of a sore throat Monday, just to plant a seed with the boss. If still you look fresh and healthy when you leave the office Tuesday, it will be too obvious. C’mon, this is textbook trade deadline strategy!

Those of you who implement your plan successfully will spend the day on the couch in your boxers, with half a Cheeto hanging from your chin, getting exciting about seventh defencemen being traded for fifth-round draft picks, and occasionally drifting off into a fantasy that your Sens will get Zdeno Chara back. For Martin Gerber, straight up.

“How can I begin to think I’m going to compete for a playoff spot by trading Backstrom?” Risebrough said. “Now, that’s showing you my motivation. I don’t know what somebody else’s motivation is. To say ‘never’ is illogical, and I don’t want to be hung with that because I don’t know what somebody might offer me.

“If somebody says, ‘I really want to overpay,’ well, then what do I do? Now they put me in a dilemma. But I’ve told you my motivation.”

Asked if that includes Marian Gaborik, whom Risebrough also says he’d prefer to hold onto, he answered, “Both.”

...another trading deadline is approaching — it’s on Wednesday — and Smyth’s name has been tossed out amid indications general manager Francois Giguere at least got the word out that he would at least listen to offers for Smyth. But Smyth has a no-trade clause in his contract, and Sunday he again said neither he not his agent, Don Meehan, had been asked about waiving it.

“It’s just rumors,” Smyth said. “That’s what happens this time of year. I’ve been fortunate enough to have that no-move clause in place, so right now it’s all speculation.”

He said he would be “surprised” if Giguere eventually asks him to waive the no-trade clause.

The New England Sports Network and the Boston Herald both reported that the Eastern Conference leading Bruins have offered their first- and third-round picks in the upcoming NHL entry draft, as well top prospect Joe Colborne.

Burke told TSN that there has been no such offer.

“It’s not true, a total fabrication,” Burke told TSN. “I sat with (Boston GM) Peter Chiarelli for the first period of Saturday’s game in Boston and we never discussed Tomas Kaberle. We hadn’t spoken about Kaberle before that and we most certainly haven’t since then. There is no truth to it at all. None.”